Inspiration from yesteryear: old Oxfam ads

Regular blogger Al sent round a link this week to an interesting Pinterest board set up by Mark Phillips. Mark's compiled a collection of old charity ads.

It's well worth a look - not least because the collection charts the shift in charity creative from the 1960s onwards. When the industry first started out, a large helping of guilt was the order of the day. You have:

It's easy to understand how, while charity advertising was in its infancy, undisguised guilt was a sure-fire way to achieve cut through.

Looking at the Oxfam ads featured too, it's clear to see that we've come a long way from the desperate images of starving people we started out with. The public perception of charity has become more sophisticated, and charity advertising has necessarily - and sometimes controversially - followed suit (see the recent Food for All debate).